A
developing brain cannot process a category, it
can only process a step. When you ask your child to clean up without breaking it down, you are asking their brain to do something it is genuinely not equipped to do yet.
And a brain that feels overwhelmed does the only thing it can.
It shuts down. Or it pushes back.
This is not a discipline problem. This is a brain-friendly plan problem. And once you have the plan — everything changes.